Disposable wearable goods such as disposable diapers and the like are typically provided with an absorber for absorbing liquids such as urine and the like. Among the absorbers are those provided with a granular powder of a highly absorptive resin (Super Absorbent Polymer, hereinafter occasionally referred to as SAP) to absorb liquids efficiently.
Conventionally, as to a method for producing a granular powder-containing sheet containing the granular powder between two sheet materials, there has been a proposal on a method and an apparatus for producing a granular powder-containing sheet, in which, for example, separated container rooms are formed between the two sheet materials and the granular powder of SAP or the like is received in the container rooms (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
The conventional manufacturing apparatus is provided with a roller-shaped transfer device and a roller-shaped carrier supporting means, of which the circumferential surfaces each have a plurality of recessed portions formed in a predetermined pattern. In one of the sheet materials that is fed onto the circumferential surface of the carrier supporting means, hollows are formed at the recessed portions by a reduced pressure, and the hollows serve as the container rooms. Meanwhile, a predetermined amount of a granular powder fed from a granular powder feeding hopper and received in each of the recessed portions on the circumferential surface of the transfer device is transferred, at a receiving position, into each of the hollows in the sheet material. Thereafter, a second sheet material is disposed over the sheet material, and subsequently, the two sheet materials are joined to each other on the peripheries of the hollows.